Teen gets 5 years for drive-by shooting that killed 55-year-old man

A Tucson man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for a drive-by shooting that killed a 55-year-old man last April.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Fell sentenced Ruben Alfredo Rodriguez, 19, to prison after he pleaded guilty to a drive-by shooting charge in exchange for an aggravated assault charge being dropped.

A co-defendant, Ramiro Perez Jr., 29, was sentenced last month to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Anthony Montoya, 55, was gunned down in a relative’s home at 12:27 p.m. April 12.

Montoya, who lives on Mountain Avenue, was killed by shots fired through the front door of a home in the 7500 block of East Lurlene Drive, near East Golf Links and South Kolb roads, after his 14-year-old granddaughter closed the door on two men, police said.

One of the men came to the home asking for a man the Montoyas did not know. The other man – wearing a mask and holding a pistol – came up to the door about the same time, police said.

The granddaughter slammed the door closed, but at least one of the strangers fired through the door, hitting Montoya, who was standing next to the girl, police said.

Montoya was hit several times and died at a hospital less than an hour later, police said.

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

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For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2